Outreach

The goal for community outreach at NEES@UCSD is to educate the public on the importance of earthquake engineering research and provide the opportunity for anyone to come see the amazing earthquake simulation capabilities. Outreach activities are focused on raising awareness of NEES resources and services among administrators, researchers, educators, students, and the general public both nationally and internationally.

The staff at NEES@UCSD enjoys collaborating with visitors. We offer tours of the facility to all ages. If your group or organization is interested, we would be happy to host you. Contact us to schedule a tour.

Outreach Activities

Full SizeNEES4KIDS: In March 2007, the NEES @ UCSD facility hosted a major integrated learning experience for 6th grade students. Students and faculty from UCSD visited local elementary schools to teach 6th graders basic concepts in Structural Engineering and Earthquake Engineering. This was followed by a week-long shake table event that brought close to 800 6th grade students to the NEES @ UCSD facility. Students built K'NEX structures and placed them on a mini-village constructed on top of the LHPOST platen. They observed the performance of their structures during earthquakes simulated on the LHPOST table. In 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 this outreach event was taken over by the Society of Civil and Structural Engineers (SCSE) at UCSD, where students were brought to UCSD to test their K'Nex structures on table-top shake tables.

Full SizeSEAOSC: From 2006-2010, an annual meeting for the Young Members of the Structural Engineers Society of Southern California (SEAOSC) was held at the NEES @ UCSD LHPOST facility. The event was held on Saturdays with approximately 60 to 70 participants from all over southern California. The participants were given a tour of the center, had lunch, and heard presentations from graduate students and faculty conducting tests using the LHPOST, the Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction, and Blast Simulator facilities.

Full SizeSHPE: From 2006-2010 the San Diego Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineer's held an annual chapter meeting at the NEES @ UCSD LHPOST facility. The meeting included a tour of the shake table and demonstration, followed by the SHPE business meeting at a nearby Holiday Inn where graduate students and faculty presented projects performed on the shake table.

The Large High-Performance Outdoor Shake Table is supported in part by the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Engineering Simulation (NEES) program of the National Science Foundation under Award Number CMMI-0927178.